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Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Self-Publishing   >   Distribution   >   Piracy can be beaten by offering a Great Service, says Valve’s Gabe newell

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Piracy can be beaten by offering a Great Service, says Valve’s Gabe newell

By on October 24, 2011

Gabe Newell of Valve has created one of the most powerful distribution machines in games. His comments on piracy ought to be illuminating. And they are.

“Piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue.”

and

“The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates.”

Steam logo

Valve matches its actions to its words. It has launched in Russia, a market famed for piracy, and Russia is now the second-largest continental European market after Germany.

Of course, there are many who would argue that Steam is, in fact, an anti-piracy technology. So Gabe’s comments may not ring entirely true. But however you look it, Steam has launched in Russia  and makes lots of money there.

They must be doing something right.

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com